Everyday Family Life: Investigating the Individual/Social in a Radicalized Modernity

What are the implications of ongoing processes of modernization and individualization for social relations in everyday life? This overall research question is the pivotal point in empirical studies at the Centre of Childhood-, Youth- and Family Life Research at Roskilde University. One research project takes a social psychological approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods in a longitudinal study of family life. The knowledge interest of the project is the constitution of communality and individuality in everyday family life. This article presents the theoretical framework and the conceptualization of everyday family life of the social psychological research agenda in this field.

The main line of argument is that ongoing modernization is synonymous with accelerated processes of detraditionalization and individualization. This calls for a re-conceptualisation of ‘the family’ which enables researchers to grasp both continuity and change. The article refers to everyday life studies and social psychology and argues that the term ‘family life’ my serve as one stepping stone for transgressing the dichotomy.
Furthermore the article unfolds the implications of this framework for the research design and methods and it illustrates this by presenting a research design which comprises a multi-methodological approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods in the study of the relationship between the individual and the social (the individual/social), thus enabling analysis of both meaning and practices and of both continuity and change in family everyday life.

Lastly the contours of further research are outlined.